tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.comments2024-01-20T00:59:08.689+00:00Brave New WorldMartyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.comBlogger864125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-14374294099757286442015-05-21T06:05:54.316+00:002015-05-21T06:05:54.316+00:00it's interesting that we assume that the digit...it's interesting that we assume that the digital rendition is the logical one which to extend. The big question is whether there is money money in doing that and and also whether it adds real perceived value in the eyes of the consumer?<br />It is clear that eBooks are licenced copies and therefore not collectibles so why try to make them collectibles. Maybe they should be seen and priced as the new paperback or cheap rendition.<br />If one follows this logic then you could look to making the hardback the collector rendition. After all today the only difference between the paperback and hardback is the packaging. By adding supplemental material within the hardback we could see the value increase and the price hold its own and differentiation between the paperback and hardback become clear.<br />We must remember that just because the digital rendition can accommodate more material isn't sufficient reason alone to include it.Martyn Danielshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-91180768853572539842015-05-14T15:50:58.053+00:002015-05-14T15:50:58.053+00:00The problem is that "enhanced" has come ...The problem is that "enhanced" has come to mean mixed media, which is adding audio and video to ebooks. That's why publishers are becoming skeptical about. A bad idea has become a failed idea.<br /><br />I've long said that mixed media was a road to nowhere. Contracting for Microsoft in the late 1980s, I saw that come to nothing with CD media. Nothing has changed. Mixed media is still expensive and something readers don't find appealing.<br /><br />What would appeal is an enhanced ebook that builds on the older print model. Digital could include more additional information that readers could use or not use. Writers often have to prune some of their research. What they've discovered could be part of the enhancement, something readers could access or ignore.<br /><br />Fiction would also benefit. Imagine a murder mystery that you read twice. The first time you read it without the authors notes turned on, attempting to solve the mystery yourself. The second time you read it with the notes on and through them the author explains the clues he placed in his tale. It'd the equivalent of DVDs that let you watch a second time and listen to the director and writers explain the background. <br /><br />In short, enhancement hasn't been tried and found wanting. It's merely been badly implemented without taking into account that, when people read a book they don't want to have radically different media thrust at time.<br /><br />For a parallel, imagine a movie that, as certain points in the story, forced are you to stop watching and read an accompanying book passage. You'd be ticked off wouldn't you? Adding videos to books does much the same thing. People simply don't like certain kinds of mixed media.<br /><br />That's perhaps with the exception of having an online author interview to watch before reading and another to watch after. Being able to see the author as a person often makes it more enjoyable.Inklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-41846983726640982912015-03-24T14:54:15.062+00:002015-03-24T14:54:15.062+00:00China Will Benefit From Alibaba Through Stricter T...China Will Benefit From Alibaba Through Stricter Taxation Policies<br /><a href="http://www.bidnessetc.com/company/baba/" rel="nofollow">Alibaba Group Holding Ltd</a> has to face a setback after its lock up expiryAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00320495753814774937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-18718895487319342812015-03-21T23:41:47.523+00:002015-03-21T23:41:47.523+00:00The EU was supposed to make trade across borders e...The EU was supposed to make trade across borders easier. The VATs on ebooks make it a mess. The VATs on them vary from 3% to 25% and because those taxes are taken out of the retail price (rather than added on afterward) it means the retail price has to vary between countries if an author and publisher are going to get anything close to the same return on each sale.<br /><br />Making matters worse, companies such as Amazon and Apple typically impose pricing only in x.99 increments. That it impossible to match prices to VAT closer than a full Euro, current just over a dollar.<br /><br />The book versus ebooks conundrum isn't even as ridiculous at that for audiobooks. Audiobooks often get the lower book rate if shipped on physical media (cassette or CD) but the higher ebook rate if sent over the Internet. Since what's being purchases is the same digital file, that makes even less sense.<br /><br />Hopefully, in the next year or two the EU will straighten this mess out. Inklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-65535279890360638662015-03-20T12:25:43.813+00:002015-03-20T12:25:43.813+00:00nice.....blog sirnice.....blog sirAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14046924421377809221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-33924009644632605662015-03-20T05:23:00.930+00:002015-03-20T05:23:00.930+00:00Hiring an Association Management Company We provid...<a href="http://www.drajon.com.au" rel="nofollow">Hiring an Association Management Company</a> We provide back office and administrative services for not for profits. We take the time consuming and routine tasks such as subscription management, supplier payment and even inquiry responses from you. We do this in such a seamless way as if the responses came from your organization. We leave you more time to focus on your ideas and reasons you joined - to make a difference. In addition, we take care of minutes of meetings, compliance, insurances and therefore enhance governance for you, your mission and your members.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05897459235431476713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-86833822108279088462015-03-11T16:31:30.901+00:002015-03-11T16:31:30.901+00:00Hang on to that mechanical typewriter. When the re...Hang on to that mechanical typewriter. When the rest of us have been rendered digitally tool-less by a terrorist electromagnet pulse:<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse<br /><br />you'll be able to go on writing. <br />Inklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-82583114106958858202015-03-10T21:08:58.469+00:002015-03-10T21:08:58.469+00:00http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31794823 this...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31794823 this is a good breakdown of the silly costs and competitionMartyn Danielshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-1580000980946667042015-03-04T10:37:21.367+00:002015-03-04T10:37:21.367+00:00I was suggested this site by my cousin. I’m not su...I was suggested this site by my cousin. I’m not sure whether this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my trouble. You are fantastic! Thanks!Good weblog here! Also your web internet site loads up quick! What web host are you making use of? I wish my internet site loaded up as quickly as yours lol. Hey I have also came across while surfing other blogs on net sites for freelancers like www.gicree.com. www.zopthemes.com and many others.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741411819976199745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-57963985107641255252015-03-03T05:55:59.911+00:002015-03-03T05:55:59.911+00:00Thanks for sharing this information. I found it ve...Thanks for sharing this information. I found it very informative as I have been researching a lot lately on practical matters such as you talk about..<br /><a href="http://www.synapsetalent.com/" rel="nofollow">british voice over</a> Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11827936274701849349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-34493522688689279622015-02-11T08:44:54.075+00:002015-02-11T08:44:54.075+00:00We have a lovely library with a coffeeshop attache...We have a lovely library with a coffeeshop attached but very little parking. It's a bit of step from the main carpark if you've got dodgy knees.Liz Fieldinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10464889663853976327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-38928764475908142852015-01-26T03:21:55.286+00:002015-01-26T03:21:55.286+00:00I don't see why allowing free return is a bad ...I don't see why allowing free return is a bad thing, though as the previous commenter points out, 2 weeks is too long a period. I have bought ebooks that were of a terrible quality (usually OCR'd without proofreading, or with errors in the XML code that caused the file to jump from one chapter to a discontinuous one), and it's incredibly frustrating not to be able to return them. Samples are of little use as usually these finish after the table of contents. Why bother?Jenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15843000716793308606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-40742876886186399542015-01-23T14:50:14.396+00:002015-01-23T14:50:14.396+00:00Ah, yet another reason Amazon ticks me off. There&...Ah, yet another reason Amazon ticks me off. There's a special app to create comic books for Kindles. There's one to create children's books. And now there this special Kindle Textbook Creator for textbooks.<br /><br />This is getting old. Amazon is always about Amazon—first, last, and always. The don't care about the troubles their proprietary standards create for authors and publishers. When I queries KDP about creating fixed layout ebooks for Kindles, I was told to hire a third-party company for thousands of dollars. InDesign will let me do that for the iBookstore in about two minutes from an already done print edition. Two minutes versus two thousand dollars.... it's not hard to see who is the author's friend.<br /><br />Even more disgusting, at every retail price but a narrow $7 window, they pay half the royalties that Apple pays (35% rather than 70%). For many authors that's the difference between eating beans at home and taking the spouse and kids out for a meal once in a while.<br /><br />This is sickening. I've written, edited and published dozens of books. I don't want to learn a different app for each kind of book. And I especially don't want my labors of layout and design confined to the Kindle store. Heck, I'll even need to use different software to create a book for Amazon's own Createspace. What sense does that make?<br /><br />I want Amazon to get off it's We Rule the World kick and assign a few of their staff to Adobe's InDesign team a mere 10 minute drive from Amazon's own corporate headquarters. And I want Amazon to make InDesign able to export quality Mobi and KF8 files like it already exports quality PDF/print and both reflowable and fixed-layout files.<br /><br />In short as a author I want Amazon to quite acting like it has been appointed King Fuhrer of the Publishing Universe and expecting everyone to use its special apps and format ebooks just for it. It can play ball like everyone else and cooperate with others. If publishing were a grade school, Amazon would be the fat little rich kid who always gets marked down for "Does not play well with others."<br /><br />In a nutshell: Amazon needs to start acting like one retailer among many. It needs to pay industry-standard royalties to authors and it needs to work with industry-standard tools such as InDesign. <br /><br />[Steps off soapbox. Picks up soapbox and walk away, waving arms in the air.]<br /><br />Inklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-3918075735883627542015-01-21T12:15:24.059+00:002015-01-21T12:15:24.059+00:00A good blog always comes-up with new and exciting ...A good blog always comes-up with new and exciting information and while reading I felt that this blog has good quality content that qualifies a blog to be a good one. Your Info about <br /><a href="http://www.mediamorphosisinc.com/" rel="nofollow">multi-cultural advertising agency</a> really helped me in my research.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09126465776737960828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-6445430255435253822015-01-18T18:04:16.003+00:002015-01-18T18:04:16.003+00:00To state the obvious, with this scheme the Chinese...To state the obvious, with this scheme the Chinese government will have ultimate control over which books are promoted this way and which aren't. <br /><br />I find that quite disturbing. There are two forms of censorship, both of which existed in 1930s Europe. Both of which are used today, although the latter is much more common.<br /><br />1. Stalinist. Borders are tightly controlled and the state exists absolute control over what books are published. Entire regions of the country have no access to the outside. It is virtually impossible for most people to get access to banned books.<br /><br />2. Hitlerian. The nation's borders are less tightly controlled and restrictions focus on banning what is published inside the country rather preventing books from coming in from outside. In major cities, newspapers from other countries are available. Tourists can still bring those books into the country. Radio broadcasts from outside are not jammed, although the government may sell radios to weak to pick up many outside broadcasts.<br /><br />In the second case, the government depends on dominating rather than completely controlling the flow of ideas. As long as most people are reading what it wants them to read, it worries little about the rest. They'd find those banned books anyway. What matters is that the latter group is kept too weak to act. <br /><br />The Hitlerian scheme also stresses the flip side of censorship, which is indoctrination. That's particularly true of schools and what is required to be read there.<br /><br />Those like the American Library Association who loudly claim to be against "banned books" when the so-called 'censors' are children's parents are themselves advocating a milder form of the Hitlerian scheme. Nazism repeated clashed with German parents over Nazi propaganda linked to pornography (Der Strummer). That same clash happens regularly in today's U.S.<br /><br />The ALA scheme works like this. The state, which controls public schools and libraries, dictates which books are available or required reading for children. Parents have no say and are regarded as censors. <br /><br />Books that differ from those the state and its bureaucracies choose are not banned, they're simply shoved out of the way by books that the state, through that complaint bureaucracy. <br /><br />Rather than read a classic that builds character, like Pilgrim's Progress, middle school children are forced to read unhealthy trash like The Catcher in the Rye. And yes, the latter is propaganda for a certain sort of life.<br /><br />That's how schools in Hitler's Germany functioned and that's the ALA's vision of America how school kids in America are to be indoctrinated. The distinctions are in degree rather than kind. <br /><br />Promotion of some books (and thus not of others) would work much the same where public transit is the promotional means rather than public schools. I can see a repressive Chinese government going for this in a big way, but I can little to like about it.<br /><br />--Michael W. PerryInklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-28915042166031204442015-01-10T07:18:07.269+00:002015-01-10T07:18:07.269+00:00Thanks for sharing such a excellent post with us
P...Thanks for sharing such a excellent post with us<br /><a href="http://www.onlinegatha.com/onlinegatha-services" rel="nofollow">Publish Online Free Ebooks</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01506899445287478176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-10915769971031492872015-01-07T16:04:46.159+00:002015-01-07T16:04:46.159+00:00The answer is the same as it always has been. Stop...The answer is the same as it always has been. Stop trying to get people to _stop_ reading. People have, and always will buy/read books that *entertain.* The constant downbeat of depressing, "literature" is destroying the desire for people to read. Not every book is, or _should_ be "literature." This insane effort to make it so, is destroying the very market for books. <br />People read books for two reasons (primarily), and they are simple ones. 1) To be *entertained.* As in to be transported away from every day life. 2) They read to be informed. IOW, they want to learn about something, whether it is history, travel, or other cultures. This *does not* require dull, boring, _tedious_ textbooks. Yes, it does _not_ require textbooks, which are by nature, tedious dull and boring. Yet that is exactly the type of books that are being foisted off on the reading/buying public.<br />My adopted granddaughter, a very smart young woman, with _both_ parents who are authors, just dropped an "AP English class." It was dedicated to *PhD level dissection and criticism* of a book. If there is any surer method of destroying the desire to read, I don't know what it could be. The problem is that instead of restricting this idiocy to *Master's* level and above college classes, it is is being taught in _high school_.* HS and less than MS level college "criticism" classes are making it "no longer fun to read." Searching for "deep significance in word choices, and characters" _does not belong_ in anything but PhD level classes. There, of necessity, you have to look for nits, riding on the backs of fleas, because all "real content" has been found already. The absurdity of teaching this at intro level college, or HS level classes, should be immediately obvious.<br />Very rarely does an author write with deeply significant choices in names, characters, or plots. If they do, the book probably dies a well deserved, and hopefully quick, death. It "dies" because it spends so much time pushing a "deep message" that it loses any desire to be worth reading. If it takes more than a paragraph to explain what the book is about, or why you wrote it, *it is crap.* It is a _textbook_, and it should be sold as one, with the appropriate desire to get rid of it as quickly as possible. <br />I just "self published" my first book, and the "reason is simple." The son of a friend, turned 5 last Summer. I wanted him to see the "Santa Claus's out there," and wonder. "Are any of them "real ones?" When he reads my book, The man Who Was A Santa Claus, he will know that one of them may be. If he "meets" one, he will know it by how he (The Santa) acts.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12942736842841409623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-34707593711185236872015-01-06T10:19:10.788+00:002015-01-06T10:19:10.788+00:00I was amused that the Manga Bible claimed on the c...I was amused that the Manga Bible claimed on the cover to have an "interview with the author". That's quite a coup!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14761353888872137118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-38635115914500533922015-01-04T00:01:02.246+00:002015-01-04T00:01:02.246+00:00The problem isn't just a glut of books caused ...The problem isn't just a glut of books caused by self-publishing. The vast majority of self-published books sell very few copies because no one can find them, i.e., if a self-published book falls in the forest and no one can discover it, does it make a sound? The real game changer has been Amazon's Kindle Unlimited because it has absorbed a lot of demand that probably would have been satisfied by a wider assortment of titles. BookBub has also contributed by generating demand for free or low cost books which also tend to be self-published. Other subscription services and free or low-cost promoters are also a factor. Bottom line - the major players are driving the market toward low-priced books creating an environment in which fewer and fewer authors can earn a living. At some point, the market may shift back due to the usual supply/demand forces. Whether a counterweight to Kindle Unlimited, BookBub, et al, will emerge is anybody's guess.Joel Goldmanhttp://www.joelgoldman.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-82576062530024508032015-01-02T17:22:37.253+00:002015-01-02T17:22:37.253+00:00Writers shouldn't let themselves get pushed ar...Writers shouldn't let themselves get pushed around. Two days of free return might be OK. Two weeks is ridiculous, particularly when readers get to sample an ebook before buying. Two weeks is the standard check-out time at many public libraries and more than enough time to read most books cover to cover.<br /><br />And this is coming at the same time at those VAT increases. Smashword's Mark Croker did his best to argue that authors should not raise their ebook prices despite getting soaked with a VAT that'll reduce their income by about 20%. Europeans won't buy if you do, he says. <br /><br />I prefer to state it in a different way. Europe is democratic. In the end it's the European people themselves that are responsible for VATs that are hidden, extremely high (averaging about 21%), and rising. It's only fair that they pay them. After all, if I buy something made in Europe here, I have to pay a sales tax.<br /><br />I did do my best to be fair when I established new prices in the iBookstore.<br /><br />* Luxembourg, France and (outside the EU) Switzerland apply their far-lower VAT for print books to ebooks. Since those tax rates are similar to sales tax in the U.S., I priced ebooks sold in their county as closely as I could to the U.S. price.<br /><br />* The other EU countries have not done that. In most, print books and audio/ebooks distributed on CDs or DVDs pay a lower VAT. Ebooks distributed online do not. I would have preferred to raise ebook prices in those countries to precisely cover the additional taxes, but Apple only allows certain fixed prices. For the Euro, that's typically an X.49 or X.99 prices. I made the closest match I could, raising prices in those countries one Apple category or about 25%.<br /><br />Amazon, displaying its usual obsession with control, told Kindle authors that it would be determining the new prices and automatically applying them. It seems to have done that with a vengeance. For a novel that formerly sold for 1.99 Euros, here are the prices as of January 1: <br /><br />1.99 Euros in France from Apple.<br />2.68 Euros in France from Amazon<br />2.49 Euros in Germany from Apple<br />2.68 Euros in Germany from Amazon<br /><br />The Apple prices are the ones I determined, hence the difference between France and Germany. You can see those prices by changing your country in iBooks. Go to the store page and find Manage-Change Country at the bottom. You can change it back afterward.<br /><br />Amazon set its new prices and I have trouble making sense of them. It increased the price of that novel by 34%, even though the highest ebook VAT in Europe is 25%. And it made the same increase for low VAT France (5.5%) as for high VAT Germany (19%). Strange to say the least.<br /><br />-----<br /><br />I'm going to wait to let the dust settle on this new 14-day free return policy. My books tend to be serious enough, I suspect people will keep them, but if I see a significant return rate, I may slap on a price increase, particularly if I can distinguish between countries in that behavior.<br /><br />For now, I'll just deal with that ridiculous return policy by rounding up a bit more aggressively rather than down when the U.S. price in dollars doesn't have a precise match to the EU price in Euros. Like I said, in the end Europe is a democracy. If Europeans permit the EU to make ridiculous rules, Europeans should have to live with the consequences.<br /><br />I hate to go to all that bother, but if the EU wants to make a complicated hash out of selling country by country with those varying VATs, I'll initiate country-by-country pricing differences. I certainly don't want to punish the French, whose government has the sense to apply print book VATs to ebooks. It's unfair to treat them the same as countries where that VAT varies from 7% for print books to as high as 25% for otherwise identical ebooks.<br /><br />And those varying prices is the only way as an author I can put pressure on Europe to fix such inconsistent, confused, and illogical policies.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Inklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-56375637980050536542014-11-24T17:53:46.385+00:002014-11-24T17:53:46.385+00:00I am also using audio translation
for my blog. it&...I am also using <a href="http://www.audiotranslator.org/" rel="nofollow">audio translation</a><br />for my blog. it's working is really good and be effective for visitors even i am using the free vision. Be Happy to use this one. :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15617888035049853941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-9320545417477548202014-11-13T10:07:48.760+00:002014-11-13T10:07:48.760+00:00"Corn Fakes" is perfectly apt! Interesti..."Corn Fakes" is perfectly apt! Interesting article.Bibliophile Bookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03067448851591422181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-54602534598782174122014-11-05T07:59:03.389+00:002014-11-05T07:59:03.389+00:00Using the gadgets is not important, at the same ti...Using the gadgets is not important, at the same time we have to take care of the gadgets from scratches,damages & from water.Keeping these things in mind one of the Canadian firm Kobo introduced Kobo<a href="http://www.cbronline.com/news/tech/hardware/desktops/kobo-unveils-waterproof-ebook-reader-aura-h2o-270814-4355453" rel="nofollow"> Aura H2O</a> , it's a waterproof ebook reader.It's a lighter device contains 233g and 9.7mm thinner.Battery life of this device is upto 2 months.Now with this people can able to carry their ebook readers near water with no worries.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04248938603040287981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-81495096453033120542014-10-08T13:32:10.054+00:002014-10-08T13:32:10.054+00:00I suspect this will prove a typical tech-media fee...I suspect this will prove a typical tech-media feeding frenzy. Keep in mind:<br /><br />1. I once talked to someone at Adobe about what I hated about its reader. He agreed but pointed out that the reader was free. The development costs were paid for by publishers, obsessed with features such as DRM. They were the ones who had to be pleased.<br /><br />2. I'm not sure there's all that much difference between what Adobe is doing and what both Apple and Amazon do with their ebook readers. All track what we're reading remotely. They have to do that to synch between devices. And while I can bypass Apple servers to read a document with iBooks, by far the easiest way to get an ebook onto my Kindle or into a Kindle app is through Amazon's servers. And Amazon makes it very easy to store that document on their servers.<br /><br />In the end, I suspect this will prove to be like bending and the new iPhones, a tempest in a teapot. A little user good sense can easily correct any potential problems.Inklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-46098977646820103532014-10-08T13:10:57.185+00:002014-10-08T13:10:57.185+00:00Except this Privacy Policy/EULA is not presented (...Except this Privacy Policy/EULA is not presented (as obvious links for example) when you download this app, the licence you ACCEPT in the installer doesn't contains those two, which means it is illegal in a large number of countries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com